Graphite Pro

When To Pivot

• Adrian Franks • Season 1 • Episode 3

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In this episode, we’re diving into the latest industry shake-ups, tools for professional growth, and the power of connections in driving innovation. Here’s what’s on the agenda:

In the News:

  • Shutterstock and Getty Unite: A deep dive into the potential merger of these visual media giants—how it could reshape the creative landscape, empower creators, and redefine storytelling in the digital age.
  • Fanbase on the Rise: With a surge in users and successful fundraising efforts, Fanbase is setting the stage for creator-driven platforms. What does this mean for digital independence and the future of monetization?
  • Big Agency Consolidation: Omnicom and IPG merge to create a super holding company, while Publicis Worldwide and Leo Burnett combine forces. We explore the market implications and what this means for creative professionals.

Graphite Pro Tool Tip of the Day:

  • Master the art of pivoting: what it means, tools to help, and embracing the unknown.
  • Find joy in your work and strategies for coping with industry consolidation.

Networking for Innovation:
Discover why personal connections and industry events are critical for staying ahead in the ever-evolving creative and tech spaces.

Get ready to explore, adapt, and find opportunities in a changing industry landscape. Tune in now!

You've been tuned in to Graphite Radio, where creativity meets culture. Part of the Kaffeine Audio Network and proudly distributed by Pepper Labs. Thanks for joining us on this journey of ideas, art, and innovation. Be sure to subscribe and stay connected for more stories that shape the world we create. Until next time, keep sketching your vision into reality.

Speaker 1:

This is. This is this is Graphite Radio. Thank you. What's good, peeps.

Speaker 2:

I'm your conductor. Instructor Adrian Franks, aka AD Frank, want to welcome you to Graphite Radio Show, episode 3. Yeah, I know it's the third week of January. It's a new year, new ideas, new opportunities. I hope you guys are doing well. I know we're kind of entering this new phase of like existence and you know we're going to be fine. So again, welcome to the show. We're gonna have fun. It's gonna be a great journey and you know we're just gonna go out here and we're just gonna build. We're not gonna let anything get in our way and we're just gonna be the best we can be with who we can be. Let's jump right.

Speaker 2:

In last episode I updated you guys on what we were doing at graphite in terms of the website and some of the other platforms. As you guys know, we're part of the Caffeine Pod Network and you know we've got a couple other different pods on the same network. But you know we want to just I want to just let you guys know that. You know the site is currently up. It's been up for a while. We also are going to start adding certain things to it, like, you know, ways to find us outside of social. You know social is in this weird state and we can get into that later on in the pod, but I just want to make sure I create things that I can connect with you guys directly, and that's usually through emails or some type of newsletter or what we call like crm. Also, I'm actually going to do something that's kind of like throwback, right, it's the thing that we started these set publishing journeys about, I guess 15, 20 years ago. Yeah, I'm bringing back my blog, right, I was talking with my wife, nicole, and she mentioned something about this idea of bylines and blogs. We kind of got to get back to that. Right, we can no longer just give all our just creative capital to these platforms, of all our just creative capital to these platforms either we don't own or, obviously, we don't control. So why not go back to the things that we used to control, which was, like, you know, blogging?

Speaker 2:

I remember my first blog was, you know, blogger, right, I think it eventually got bought by Google, but it was like a ton of different blogging platforms in like the early 2000s and I think there was something cool about that, right, you know, it was kind of like Tumblr. Then it was Blogger and it was like I can't remember something else. I don't know how old I'm getting, but yeah, those platforms were really cool because it just allowed for you to express yourself freely, you could post photos, you could write about it. I think even a guy like Ta-Nehisi Coates actually got his start. That had started like just writing, like professionally, just blogging, and that turned into like a wonderful career here, producing all these beautiful books and even doing things for Marvel. So, yeah, I do think a lot of us that are like these, you know, pro creatives or semi-pro creatives are just inspiring dope individuals. We got to get back to owning what we do. And then I think bringing back the blog may not be a bad idea, right? Especially if you attach it to your website and attach it to a newsletter. I just mentioned that earlier. So, yeah, let's bring back the blog. You know social media technically is what they call microblogging. It became social media, so let's go back to like some things that we own. So, again, they'll be bringing back the blog. They'll be rolling out the newsletters in the coming weeks, so definitely stay tuned for that. Let's jump right into the news.

Speaker 2:

I want to talk about three specific things around creativity and imagery, some new opportunities around social media as well as what I'm calling the big agency consolidation. So the first thing I want to talk about is the big consolidation, or, more so, the Shutterstock and Getty combining into this big super giant of licensing. Now, if you know anything about Shutterstock and Getty, it was the premier house in terms of licensing of imagery and photography and illustrations and even iconography and definitely videos. At one point in time, these guys was actually actually like in this thing what we call like a licensing war. You can see like Getty's imagery and like their name in any credit of a film and TV. And Shutterstock you can see a lot of their things in like campaigns, and both of those guys were kind of more or less playing in each other's face.

Speaker 2:

But as you notice how things are happening in today's world, that it's like this big consolidation of like everything Well, it's also that you know something like a Shutterstock and Getty. They got to kind of combine too, because if you're going to be somewhat competitive, they got to think about what it means to produce content. Catalog has been licensed through. You know professional photographers. I guess you guys want to call them content creators of today. I still call them. You know, pros, right? Photographers, illustrators or just videographers Overall, just these beautiful people who make just great content right. A lot of that imagery and that content have more or less been licensed, either through like a brokerage house or directly through the extra producer themselves, and those things are licensed out for different purposes, where it's gonna be for advertising, b2b efforts or you know anything, for TV and definitely like some other promotional things.

Speaker 2:

Now, if you think about this new world that they're living in, they kind of kind of compete with generative AI. They got to compete with social media. You can argue that generative AI probably put the nail in the coffin, but what really gave both of these platforms a run for their money was the democratization of creativity itself through the phone, especially with social media. You know, iphone came out in 2007. You know, everybody all of a sudden now had a really decent kind of camera in your pocket, right, but what made it powerful is that that camera became attached to the internet and then it also became attached to social media. We won't name the big one that's out there, but early days was like Hipstamatic and I forgot the one. I think it was called Flickr, right, yeah, it was Flickr. So those platforms allow people to like, upload imagery and share with the people. Then came along social media. You know Friendsters to what used to be, I guess, cool Facebook. Even Facebook kind of started a little fringy by judging people's well, women's faces. But we won't go there. Then it was Hipstamatic. Then it became Instagram. Instagram, I think, is what really unleashed the democratic power of content creation as we know it today.

Speaker 2:

Shutterstock and Getty they were kind of like the OGs, right, and it was like a couple other ones too. It was like Corvus. It was like, oh man, I used to know all these off the top of my head. Now I guess it's been so long since I've had to use stock photography I just can't remember. And, by the way, stock used to be one of those things that you have to actually look through a catalog and order it on a phone to actually get that image. So they'll send you some CDs. You kind of download a comp of it client like it. You get the high res sent to you and some kind of downloadable link or a CD, and that's what it was.

Speaker 2:

But in today's world that's definitely changing. These two platforms are now trying to see how can they really engage designers, how can they engage marketers, even content enthusiasts, but you want to look at the reason why they're actually combining. They got to stay competitive. They can't beat the tech companies. They can't beat the different ways to generate an image from the different large language models, or you know these AI bots right. So, yeah, I think that might not be a bad move for these guys. Unfortunately, it's going to be a lot of layoffs, but I do think for those who are still working for those companies, the best thing to do is they can just try to pivot Learn these tools, learn these new AI tools, shoot better content right, or maybe go work for a smaller licensing company that really does this very well. So that's my take Show the stock and get it.

Speaker 2:

Let's chat about fan base More. So. Let's specifically talk about fan base. Maybe spill a couple other platforms that now can more or less capitalize on opportunity from the backlash of people not really liking a lot of the policy changes coming out of meta. Now, if you're following everything on social right fan base owned by isaac hayes, the third son of Isaac Hayes. Second, the beautiful musician from way back when. Love is love is music, love is music.

Speaker 2:

Long story short, this guy got a chance to give people reason to kind of join fans base, not just because they've been around they're the alternative to, you know, instagram and a lot of the social platforms but more so it's this idea that you can actually own a part of a fan base. Now they're doing like this big campaign that are more or less getting people to kind of go and donate I think like $399 and you kind of become like a part owner on a platform, which I actually think is something kind of cool to that, bro. You know this idea that, hey, you can be on a platform that you can build culturally with your ideas and your content, but also with your dollars. It's nothing like in capitalism that speaks louder than your actual dollars, because that's a level of intent that says that I'm going to take this tool for living and enjoyment and, you know, I guess, convenience, and I'm going to use it to empower something that I actually believe in. Right, it's like you buy stocks on an exchange. It's kind of the same thing. Now, I think this approach here is it seems that they're wanting to make sure that when you're contributing to this platform, that certain things will have to kind of more or less be thought about, not necessarily from the people who started Fanbase or who currently run in it, but more so from the community. If everybody who's on this platform for the most, not all are investing in this platform, then it's probably not one of those things that they can just easily change it up how they feel.

Speaker 2:

The problem with the big platform out there, the big boogeyman Meta, the big mega platform, is that at any given moment, the person who leads Meta, which is Zuck, he can just kind of change what he wants right. This guy, I think, has roughly a large percentage I think it's even like 16% of the company. That's pretty huge. So his voice is going to ring loud and far and this is a publicly traded company, but he owns a lot of stocks and he's basically only going to look out for the you know, the interests of the stockholders. So if you take Fanbase, same thing. If everybody or most of the people on this platform is now owning something on the platform and have invested in it, I think that's their approach too. But it's going to be something that for a lot of people who are just feeling, are not really feeling what's going on with Meta. They feel like they're going to go to a space that feels somewhat safe if not a little bit outright safe, I guess and feel like they have some control over it. I think that's like the bigger approach here, and it seems like their fundraising efforts have been kind of paying off. They've raised roughly like seven plus million dollars, right. So that's kind of that's pretty big right, especially for, like an independently owned startup I guess I really can't call it a startup, but nonetheless they are independent and they are driving this like culture of like creativity and this idea of like digital independence. So go check out fanbase. I'ma throw him a plug. I don't know the guy I used. I actually used the app, got a lot of my content over there, just got some kind of way. Maybe Graphite should have its own page. I think I'm going to do that, especially since we need to kind of create more creative communities on platforms that we own, right. So check it out.

Speaker 2:

Last in the news, let's talk about the big agency consolidation. Now, I talked about this a while ago. If you think about the holding agency consolidation now, I talked about this a while ago. If you think about the holding companies right, it's a lot of them, but there's four of them, right, it's omnicom, it's it's ipg and it's wpp. You know, you guys already know about omnicom and ipg. They're going to emerge sometime this year, if, I guess, you know, the government allows that, which I can kind of see that happening. I mean, listen, we had some weird shit going on. It's, it's odd, right, a whole lot of like conflict of interest, right like we're living in a one big conflict of interest. But I I digress, I definitely think that's going to go through.

Speaker 2:

But, um, publicist worldwide and leo burnett, they're definitely going to merge and they're going to merge to this new company called leo, which is kind of interesting. You know they're going to merge to this new company called Leo, which is kind of interesting. You know they're part of the same network. You know, publicis' worldwide logo looks like a lion. Leo Burnett is, well, this is a handwritten type of Leo Burnett. But you know, some people call a lion a Leo. So I guess that's kind of cool, right. But you know, I know they're going to be merging to be, I guess, this same, I guess, reason why everybody else is merging. They want to be competitive.

Speaker 2:

Now, what does this mean for the marketplace? Again, I keep saying it and I say it again, and it's not just me saying this, everybody who's understanding this landscape of merging as well as trying to stay competitive like you kind of got to do it right. You kind of got to click up a little bit if you're going to actually be very competitive, because it seems that you know that biggest competition is not necessarily a market I'm not going to say marketplace, it's not even necessarily the marketplace of other ad agencies. It's the tech companies, it's Google, it's Meta, it's, you know, amazon, there's any e-commerce platforms such as like Shopify, like these are all platforms that know how to engage an audience through different means, but mostly through their technology and their overall just strategic thinking, and they can go directly to the consumer to engage them. They can even bypass the agencies and go directly to the brands and be like hey, brand XYZ, you can use our platform to engage your audience directly for a fraction of the cost. You're not having to place ads, buy all this inventory in terms of media, and you can engage directly with your audience with your brand, you know. So I guess we have to kind of wait and see what that means. In terms of Pulisic and Leo Burnett, especially, leo Burnett was like this traditional agency that did a lot of like storytelling through campaigns and ads and publicists worldwide, more or less the same, but they had some kind of, like you know, digital chops. But again, I guess we have to just kind of wait and see where this merges is going to go.

Speaker 2:

Now I tell all my people again if you're working in this respected field or those agencies, learn how to pivot. This is the time to pivot. This is the time to learn something new. Learn somebody else's job. Learn your job better. Go learn something about CRM. Learn how to understand briefs or write briefs better. Definitely learn every aspect of AI. They got a ton of courses on YouTube and even things you can take for free from, like, certain institutions of higher learning, or even like online courses with masterclass and courses, like you know. So this is the perfect time to actually disrupt yourself before you get disrupted. So you know, a great big pivot Consolidation is the word of the year.

Speaker 2:

So I won't be shocked if I start hearing more and more of these agencies definitely come by, I think, before I left WPP. I'm not going to even name the agency. I'm a little petty, so I won't name them for a couple different reasons. I kind of did some foul things, but whatever, they were starting to merge with another digital-minded agency and it kind of happened, oddly, on my day off. I kind of feel like Greg, from Friday, you kind of get fired on your day off. I didn't get fired, but every time I take a day off, odd, weird things happen at my job. So there you go, leo Burnett, who was his worldwide merchant.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so now that we kind of have covered some things from news and culture, let's talk about this idea, about what it means to pivot. Right, it is 2025, as you guys know, and a lot of things have already just kind of kicked off. We got a new administration, we got new laws that have been signed and kind of got to get approved and see how it plays out, right. But you know, we got a lot of things that's going on in the world in general, right, and you know, obviously most people biggest angst is going to be around personal goals, life aspirations, job focus, keeping the job, finding a new job, this idea of what it means to pivot. What does that actually mean? You know?

Speaker 2:

I know, for me, pivoting for, I guess, this last, I guess the 30 years of my career in general, I've always had this idea of embracing the unknown right, and I think embracing the unknown it kind of well, it kind of freed me up. I can't really speak for anybody else, but if you do embrace what it means to just you know you don't really know what's going to happen, but you kind of know you got to do it A lot of times that does free you mentally, it can possibly free you spiritually, it definitely can free you just creatively. Right, you know, a lot of times you just can't control certain variables. You can't control what happens at a job in terms of sometimes them losing market share. Sometimes you just can't control what happens in society. Right, you can go cash your vote, you cannot vote, you can vote for the wrong candidate or the right candidate, and things still just won't go exactly the way you see it, right, when it comes down to, like you know, overall pivoting, I think definitely embracing that unknown, finding joy, is a great one right, like, what are some things you're doing outside of what you do currently at your job is always a great thing, you know.

Speaker 2:

Going back to the unknown, yeah, I mean, if you just think about people who kind of do reconnaissance, they go out, they see what's the most coolest thing out there, or they kind of do this thing, what we call innovation. Innovation can be very messy, it can be expensive. At times it can be very, very confusing, because you sometimes just don't know where you're going. This unknown thing is just prevalent in every step of the process of being innovative. But when you kind of do it long enough, something just magically happens right when the aha moment goes off, or you kind of discover something, or the universe if there's something magical about that it just opens up and just give you this beautiful gift in terms of, like an opportunity or I don't know, maybe a bag laying up in your lap right All of a sudden. Now you got an opportunity to make some more money, right, or you got an opportunity to actually take on new projects and a job that you didn't consider, or maybe it's one of those things where, hey, you meet some brand new people. You know, I know most of us have met our circle of friends In most cases through work.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you look at most of the things you even see on TV. Culturally, most TV shows is either centered around work or centered around a place specifically where somebody actually stays. So you look at a TV show called Abbott. There's a bunch of people who's doing things around teaching kids. It's work. Same thing with the TV show ATL. Teaching kids right, it's work. Same thing with the TV show ATL. All those group of characters was always working towards getting Paperboy to be the hottest artist in Atlanta and beyond. So you know, work, play life. That is kind of like, you know, more or less like the opportunities when you embrace the unknown.

Speaker 2:

Embracing the unknown is going to be a good thing. It allows you to get rid of fear. It allows you to like at least try something new, right? I mean, hey, I'm not necessarily skydiving, maybe I tried it to kind of overcome certain types of fears. I don't really like needles but hey, maybe I get a tattoo. I'm not saying to be that extreme, but you do have to kind of like break it up a little bit in terms of embracing the unknown.

Speaker 2:

Now, part of this overall appearance is looking at I guess being insightful to look at the landscape of any industry that you're in, right, look at what's happening. Maybe read the newspaper and not necessarily listen to things on social media. Look at patterns that has happened to you in the past. Know when you're possibly about to be laid off. I can tell you, every single time I was laid off I kind of knew what I was about to be laid off because you know people get quiet, start having all these meetings without you or all of a sudden your projects that you've been working on for like a long time, just you know, miraculously just disappear. So yeah, look at when you know consolidations start happening or they start bringing in like new outside vendors to kind of, you know, optimize the new way of doing things or you know, optimizing old work streams. You know, understand that right, that may be a time to actually pivot and do something different in your life or at your job or what you're doing. So look for those signs when it comes to like actually having a pivot.

Speaker 2:

I know also embracing the unknown and knowing when to pivot it's expanding your network. Be open to these new opportunities of meeting new people. Again, some of my best connections in life have come from, like, people I've met on my job or, you know, I guess, in the industry I work in. So some of these people went from being co-workers to like dear friends, to like pretty much quasi-family members in that sense. So definitely be open to pivoting and I think that's kind of like what I'm going to say, really the graphite tool of the day Normally I want to talk about, like these other tools, you know, that are like digital tools but the biggest tool you can have is, you know, this idea of knowing when to pivot and embracing the unknown and being open to new opportunities.

Speaker 2:

One last thing to leave you with specifically expand on the whole making connections in the personal network. What I've been doing lately too has been, you know, getting back out in the world and actually attending real industry events. You know, for a while we kind of, you know, strayed away from that right, for obvious reasons. But I do think this in-real-life approach to like making you know away from that right for obvious reasons, but I do think this in real life approach to like making you know personal connections, it's quite an important. You know, humans, we're a social animal. We need to be around other humans sometimes to just kind of validate what's going on or just more or less have a chin check or just really just to be human. Right, you can't be human just by yourself. So, you know, building these relationships and attending like industry events it keeps you kind of ahead of like a lot of things, right, whether it's going to be creativity, the newest um text and you know, the new kind of things coming out in tech or new processes or methods, I do think attending industry events where they're kind of like these big events or something that's a little bit more intimate, it's key, right. Uh, I've noticed that's why I mostly dwell. I get a lot of ideas from just meeting people and hearing new ideas that you know I never thought about, or just hearing from another perspective. So, again, get out there, attend some events and definitely, uh, just connect right, just to be human, you know.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that's it, peoples, for this episode of Graphite Pro Radio. I want to leave you guys with a big thanks, definitely, if you can spread the word right, I'm still building this platform to be beautiful, but I need more people and you know I've noticed every time I post, my number's actually doubled. So get more people to like, more people to subscribe, more people to actually just share. So those three actions are vital and important to kind of grow this platform and I'd be much appreciative if you'd like subscribe and share Graphite Pro. Tell all your peoples about the other shows on caffeine as well. So we out here just building and we appreciate everything you guys do. We appreciate your attention and your time. As always, stay cool, stay creative, be human. Peace out, guys, holla.

Speaker 3:

You've been tuned into Graphite Radio, where creativity meets culture, Part of the Caffeine Audio Network and proudly distributed by Pepper Labs. Thanks for joining us on this journey of ideas, art and innovation. Be sure to subscribe and stay connected for more stories that shape the world we create. Until next time, keep sketching your vision into reality. You.